project

Davis Projects for Peace.

A four-month Lahore intervention using theatre, role reversal, and facilitated dialogue with sixteen Pashtun and Punjabi youth — closing in public on August 8, 2026, with Hate for Sale, a play performed at Alhamra.

The method is rehearsal before persuasion.

The project treats theatre as civic infrastructure. Participants do not only discuss conflict; they inhabit each other's roles, test language in the room, and practice coexistence before it becomes an abstract demand.

Operating model.

Theatre and dialogue as a way to rehearse coexistence.

The Davis Projects for Peace grant funded a four-month intervention in Lahore, written at the International Student House of Washington, DC and carried out with sixteen young people: eight from the Punjabi community, eight from the Pashtun community, ages 18 to 28. Eight weeks of workshops sat at the center; the months around them held planning, team-building, and logistics.

The design moved from foundational workshops on empathy and inherited narrative, into participatory theatre labs where letters, diaries, and oral histories became scenes, and closed with a public performance and facilitated dialogue.

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Outputs.

public performance

Hate for Sale

A play in five acts, performed by the project's participants at Alhamra on August 8, 2026, followed by an open dialogue with the audience.

performed

short film + documentary

The Prologue & The Documentary

A short film carrying the audience from Washington to Lahore, and a documentary filmed at the International Student House and inside the project. Both in production, releasing by the end of September 2026.

in production

replication guide

Facilitation and workshop toolkit

Facilitation guides, modular workshop materials, and an archive of civilian stories, built so the method can travel to other cities and communities.

delivered

Open for work

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